


Amber Eyes

by loud_as_lions



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Soft Hockey Boys, it's cheesy as hell i'm so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-26 13:22:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19006630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loud_as_lions/pseuds/loud_as_lions
Summary: For his senior thesis, Nursey has to write a poetry chapbook. In true writer fashion, his deadline is approaching and he's run out of words. Dex helps him out.





	Amber Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Back at it again, projecting onto poor Nursey. I'm supposed to be writing new poems for the seminar I'm attending next week. Instead, I wrote this... which I started when I was procrastinating on my own thesis chapbook two months ago!

It was at the third wildly aggravated sound that Nursey made that Dex finally turned to his roommate. 

“What, Nurse?” the red-haired boy asked.

Nursey sighed. “If I ask you for help, can you do me a favor and not chirp the shit out of me?”

“I didn’t chirp you when Chowder and I had to teach you long division frog year.”

Nursey crossed his arms over his chest. “One, yes, you did. Two, that right there totally counts as chirping. And three, it’s not my fault I’m not a goddamn calculator.” 

“You’re so dramatic. Fine, no chirping. Tell me what you need so I can get back to my own homework.”

Dex rolled his chair over to Nurse’s desk, and Nursey pointed at the computer screen. “How the hell do I use Word?”

Dex looked at the screen, then at his roommate, brows furrowed. Ther document was formatted weirdly, but he seemed to know how to use it just fine. “What do you mean?”

“I screwed something up, but I don’t know when, or how, or what, so I can’t fix it.”

“Nurse,” Dex said, “I’m not following.”

“Look,” Nursey said. Dex watched as he tried to put page numbers on the document- each time he did it, even though he selected right alignment, they ended up in the lefthand corner. 

Dex made a noise of understanding and bumped his chair into Nursey’s, pushing him over just enough so that Dex could get at the keyboard. It was a valiant effort, clearing the formatting, screwing around with all sorts of settings he didn’t even know Word had. “Nurse, how do you do these things?”

Nursey spun in his chair. “I don’t know!” Dex rolled back to his own desk. 

“Sorry, man. My best advice is to start over in a new document without fucked up formatting.” He admitted. 

Nursey gave an exaggerated pout, to which Dex rolled his eyes. “Thanks for trying, Dexy."

They resumed in relative silence, the only sounds keyboard clacking and pen tapping. Things went like this for a half hour until, abruptly, Nursey let out another frustrated noise, this time accompanied by the clicking of his laptop closing. Dex looked over and saw his roommate sprawled out in his chair dramatically, head hanging backward, defeated. Normally Dex would laugh at this level of Nursey-ness, but this time it was too genuine to chirp. 

“You good, Nursey?” Dex asked, one brow raised. 

The other boy took a deep breath. Dex watched as the air seemed to inflate him, bringing the life back into him, before deflating again. “Not really.” 

Dex’s eyes widened a little with concern. He hadn’t expected such honest admittance. Nursey seemed to anticipate this because he finally looked at him. “Like, I’m fine. I’ll be fine. It’s just my thesis giving me trouble, ya know?” 

Truthfully, Dex didn’t know. His thesis was a pretty straightforward research paper and wasn’t due until next semester, meanwhile, Nurse’s creative writing thesis was entirely different and he’d opted for fall semester instead of spring, so his due date was probably quickly approaching. 

“That sucks, man.” Dex looked to the notebook and textbook on his desk, scanning them quickly, then looked back to Nurse. “I’m in an okay stopping spot if you want to, like, talk about it. Or at least take a snack break with me."

Nursey grinned at him, wide and bright. “Venting and snacks? You should be a life coach, bro.” 

So, they get snacks. Since Bitty graduated, most of the Haus’ food-related endeavors have fallen on Dex’s shoulders. However, Dex isn’t Bitty. Once Dex realized his Hausmates seemed to expect him to step into the tiny baker’s shoes, he got to work teaching the others to be more self-competent. He didn’t have the time or the patience to cater to each of his teammates, so he instead gave them the tools to do it themselves. He still whipped up pies and other sweets each week like Bitty had, and made most of the food for Team Brunch, but he felt good knowing he wouldn’t have to worry about what they’d do after he was gone.

Dex was more of a cookie man than a pie one, so he pulled the container of chocolate chip cookies out of the freezer and took a few for himself before passing it to Nursey. 

“I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you for introducing me to frozen cookies, Poindexter.” Nurse groaned, a cookie already half in his mouth. 

“You can thank my siblings for always eating the thawed ones before I could get to them.” Dex laughed, enjoying the cool sensation in his mouth before speaking. “You should get your thesis rant out before we finish these cookies so there will still be some left to make you feel better after.”

Nursey nodded solemnly. He knew it was probably supposed to be funny, but the weight of all he had left to do for his thesis deadline was weighing too heavily on him to allow room for humor. He nibbled on the cookie in his hand, trying to find the words. 

“Nurse?” Dex asked. Nursey’s head snapped up to look at him. 

“Shit, sorry,” Nursey grumbled. “That’s the problem, though.” Dex raised an eyebrow at him, and he sighed. “I’m out of words.”

Dex’s brows furrowed. “You talk more than anyone I’ve ever met, Nursey.”

At that, he finally let out a chuckle. “Shut up, man. I meant, like, my poetry brain. My fuckin' word hoard is empty.” Nursey explained around another cookie.

“Like… writer’s block?” Dex asked.

Nursey nodded. “I haven’t written anything new in weeks,” he admitted.

“But all you do is work on your thesis!” Dex protested. 

He shook his head. “It’s all editing old stuff for the final draft. I still need some new stuff for it, too, but the words just aren’t there.” 

“Damn. That sucks, bro.” Dex commented, possibly just to fill the empty space between them. “Is there something I could do?” Dex was basically the arch nemesis to all things creative writing, but he figured the least he could do when his friend was so clearly upset was offer.

Nursey gave a bitter chuckle. “Give me something to write about?” 

Dex blinked at Nurse, the thought that had rushed to his head too strong to suppress. He wasn’t a poet, but if he was he’d write some cheesy stanzas about how perfect moments aren’t planned. How sometimes they just fall into your lap and if you didn’t seize them it would be some kind of injustice because that was the feeling swelling in his chest right now. 

He leaned forward slowly, watching as Nursey’s eyes wandered up to meet his as he closed the space between them. Giving his friend enough time to stop him if he didn’t want this. But he didn’t. Nursey kissed back with the same fervor that Dex kissed him with. Fuck words, Dex thought, this was poetry. 

When they broke apart they were both breathing heavily, Dex’s hand in Nursey’s hair. Nursey rested his forehead against Dex’s. 

“How’s that?” Dex smirked. 

Nursey scoffed. “Are you kidding?” 

“Worth writing about?” 

Nurse pulled back, eyes searching his roommate’s face. “That’s why you did that?”

“More like the excuse I used to act on something I’ve been ignoring for a year.” his voice was calm and casual, but his ears were a bright, telling red.

Nursey grinned. “A year, huh?”

“Why’d you think I didn’t want to live with you? Rooming with your crush is torture.” Dex admitted. 

Nursey took Dex’s hand in his. “Don’t I know it.” 

Dex’s eyes widened, and Nursey chuckled. “Dex, the title of my thesis is literally Amber Eyes.” 

“You’re shitting me. Nurse, is your whole thesis-“

“Of fucking course it is. You’re the only thing worth writing about around here.” 

Dex couldn’t help it. He surged forward and kissed him again. It was longer this time, more lust-filled. They only broke apart for air.

“Dex,” Nursey panted. Dex hummed, moving down to kiss his strong jawline instead. “I really want to keep doing this. For, like, ever.” Dex made an agreeing noise, working his way down Nursey’s throat to leave soft kisses there. “But…” 

As soon as he said it, Dex pulled away. “Sorry, I-“ he began, but Nursey cut him off. 

“My words are back and if I don’t write them all down pronto they might disappear again,” Nursey explained. 

Dex grinned. “Go on, then. I’ll clean up down here.”

Nursey kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

“I’ll be your muse any time, Nurse.”

Nursey laughed on his way toward the stairs. “As if you have a choice.”

Nursey penned four poems that night, and three more when he woke up in Dex’s arms, the sunlight pouring through the shades turning Dex’s hair into shades of gold Nursey couldn’t even have imagined. All the worry about his thesis was gone. Even if Dex never wanted to kiss him again, or spend the night in his bed, the past few hours were enough inspiration to fill a hundred chapbooks. Thankfully he only had to write one for now, so he didn't have to keep interrupting their kissing to frantically scribble out stanzas.

**Author's Note:**

> The computer problem Nursey has at the beginning comes from something I did (somehow) while I was typing up the final draft of my thesis and I had to re-type it all in a new doc because I couldn't figure out what I did. If only I could be more like Nursey in his athleticism instead of his clumsiness. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! Come shriek about these hockey gays with me at christopher-chowder-chow on tumblr! :D


End file.
